KI-Media2 KI Media Let us clean up our language usage…

Just finished revising the Gospel of LUKE, what I had edited/punctuated. Mainly, to correct the confused usage of សូម and សុំ. This problem is prevalent in the 4 gospels. Please email me if I have missed any, as there were countless corrections to make in the 4 gospels.

Here’s how Dr. Phalkun explained to me the difference: In general you use សុំ for asking, begging. Some would say that you would use this spelling to address someone of lower ranking than you. You use សូម to express a need, For example, you would write: ខ្ញុំ សូមទោស rather than ខ្ញុំ សុំទោស to mean “I pray you forgive me” and not “I am asking for forgiveness”. សូម is also used as a polite introduction to a sentence, as in: សូម ជ្រាប.

Also, may I remind everyone that អោយ an INCORRECT spelling of ឲ្យ. អោយ is not found in any of the established 6 dictionaries, and is expressly prohibited by the Samdach Sangh (Venerable) Chuon Nath as incorrect).

Ven. Chuon Nath Dictionary (1967) and another dictionary before 1977 dico (1967-1968) have ឲ្យ. Dictionaries of 2004, 2007 have ឱ្យ.

ឱ្យ is an accepted form of ឲ្យ. However, the introduction page of Ven. Chuon Nath edition – note No. ខ៣, he also indicated that while this form is correct, we should not use: ឱយ or អោយ.

Writing អោយ (which is INCORRECT) is akin to texting in English “luv”. It is common practice to write informal text or email messages “I luv you” but it doesn’t make “luv” the correct spelling of “love”. The principle also applies to writing Khmer properly.

This is not a mistake of the current Khmer Standard Version, but I see incorrect spelling of ឮ (to hear) elsewhere all the time. ឮ is the CORRECT spelling, not anything else.